Archive for April, 2010

Recently I read an article regarding listening and hearing what matters. The article was titled “The New Communication Tools.” I have taken from the article a good bit of new philosophy to live by. The article investigates listening and understanding. It is important to understand that listening is the key to success in public relations. There must be an understanding on all levels of the task at hand. The practitioner must understand that he will not be understood unless the public has heard him properly, but he must also understand that it is not always easy for the public to listen to certain messages. I have learned that providing a clear, concise message to the public is paramount. The public has every right to ignore and disapprove of your message. So in order to ensure that your message has been properly communicated to the public you must do research and try to understand what it is that the public needs to hear. I think that the article is important because it is not easy to market a message without the proper preparation. You must be prepared to deliver a message that is relevant to your market in order to succeed. It is often the mistake of practitioners to deliver a message to the public that is not relevant and therefore the public will be resistant to you message.

Another important subject that this article focuses on is attempting to provide helpful messages to you society. It is crucial that practitioners strive to help their clients by providing messages that are meaningful. You want to provide a decent message that ensures a clean public image and keeps in mind the reputation of the client you are working for. In doing so you can be sure that future projects completed by you and your clients will continue to occur. Helpful message include those that aim to solve a problem. Something along the lines of a public service announcement is usually the path taken when professionals make mistakes. In order to clarify the misconception he practitioner can react using the media to help correct a situation.

I now understand more about the strengths and weaknesses of effective communication. People want to be heard and understood. And practitioners want to provide concern for their clients needs. The only way practitioners can ensure the message provided in their work is professional is to remain clear and honest. The practitioners must be as clear as possible in order to avoid misconception of the subject matter. The public does not like to be the receiver of false information and if false information is provided there is the potential for poor reputations to follow. I feel that practitioners who listen and try to perfect understanding their client’s needs will be far more likely to succeed than those who do not. The practitioner must research and study the needs of there publics and then provide strong effective messages that can be easily understood, along with messages that pertain to the culture of the particular public.